Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Virendra Sharma MP seeks ban on 'virginity tests'

Virendra Sharma MP seeks ban on 'virginity tests'

VIRENDRA SHARMA MP has joined a cross-party coalition of MPs and women’s rights organisations in backing the Health and Care Bill, to ban the so-called ‘virginity testing’ and the practice of hymen ‘repair’ surgery.

The so-called ‘virginity tests’ and the practice of hymen ‘repair’ surgery are both currently legal and are being conducted by doctors in the UK to ‘check’ or ‘restore’ the virginity of a woman, often prior to an arranged marriage.


The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that the so-called ‘virginity testing’ is: “A violation of the victims human rights and is associated with both immediate and long-term consequences that are detrimental to her physical, psychological and social well-being.”

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) have strongly opposed the practices of virginity testing and hymenoplasty on the grounds that neither is medically required in any circumstance and support both the new clauses.

New Clause 1 and New Clause 2 has received support from over 50 MPs from all main parties, including former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, Women and Equalities Select Committee chair Caroline Nokes, Plaid Cymru leader Liz Saville Roberts, Lib-Dem Sarah Olney, Labour’s shadow minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding Jess Phillips, Women’s Health All-Party Parliamentary Group chair Jackie Doyle-Price and Green MP Caroline Lucas.

The Government has committed to ‘work to criminalise virginity testing’ through their recently published strategy on tackling violence against women and girls.

Sharma said: “Women and girls deserve to grow up free from notions of ‘breaking their womanhood’ so they ‘bleed on their wedding night’. These traumatic practices have no basis in medical science, harm women and girls and perpetuate dangerous myths of ‘purity’.

“We must act now to stop both ‘virginity testing’ and hymen ‘repair’ surgery. That’s why I am backing New Clause 1&2 to the Health and Care Bill as I call on the Government to end this violence against women and girls for good.”

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said: “We are very concerned that women are either being coerced into having these procedures or feel pressurised into having them so they can bleed during sex and can demonstrate they are a virgin on their wedding night.

“The RCOG and the RCM want to see both virginity testing and hymenoplasty banned in the UK. This will send a clear message that there is no place in the medical world for these procedures and that women deserve the right to have ownership over their own sexual and reproductive health.”

More For You

Sara Sharif e1692881096452

Sara was discovered dead in her bunkbed on 10 August 2023.

Sara was discovered dead in her bunkbed on 10 August 2023.

'Chatterbox with biggest smile': Headteacher pays tribute to Sara Sharif

SARA SHARIF, a ten-year-old girl who suffered fatal abuse at the hands of her father and stepmother, is being remembered as a cheerful and caring pupil with a love for singing.

Her father, Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty on 11 December of her murder at their home in Woking, Surrey, on 8 August 2023. Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child.

Keep ReadingShow less
Healthcare workers hold placards as they demonstrate on Westminster Bridge, near to St Thomas' Hospital in London on May 1, 2023. (Photo: Getty Images)
Healthcare workers hold placards as they demonstrate on Westminster Bridge, near to St Thomas' Hospital in London on May 1, 2023. (Photo: Getty Images)

Teachers, nurses warn of strikes over 2.8 per cent pay rise proposal

TEACHERS and nurses may strike after the government recommended a 2.8 per cent pay rise for public sector workers for the next financial year.

Ministers cautioned that higher pay awards would require cuts in Whitehall budgets.

Keep ReadingShow less
A man walks past a mural that says ‘Northern Ireland’, on Sandy Row in Belfast, Northern Ireland, August 11, 2024. (Photo: Reuters)
A man walks past a mural that says ‘Northern Ireland’, on Sandy Row in Belfast, Northern Ireland, August 11, 2024. (Photo: Reuters)

Northern Ireland approves extension of post-Brexit trade rules

NORTHERN Ireland’s devolved government has voted to continue implementing post-Brexit trading arrangements under the Windsor Framework, a deal signed between London and the European Union in February 2023.

The vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont extended the arrangement for four years.

Keep ReadingShow less
'Covid bereavement rates in Scotland highest among Asians'
Ethnic groups were found to be two-and-a-half times more likely to have experienced the loss of a close family member.

'Covid bereavement rates in Scotland highest among Asians'

THE bereavement rates due to Covid in Scotland have been highest among those identifying with ‘Any other’ ethnic group (68 per cent), followed by Indians (44 per cent) and Pakistanis (38 per cent), a new study revealed. This is significantly higher than the national average of around 25 per cent.

Ethnic groups were found to be two-and-a-half times more likely to have experienced the loss of a close family member during the Covid crisis.

Keep ReadingShow less
Harmeet Dhillon gives a benediction at the end of the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,  on July 15, 2024. (Photo: Getty Images)
Harmeet Dhillon gives a benediction at the end of the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15, 2024. (Photo: Getty Images)

Trump nominates Harmeet Dhillon for top Department of Justice role

US PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump has nominated Indian-American attorney Harmeet K Dhillon as assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice.

“I am pleased to nominate Harmeet K Dhillon as assistant attorney general for civil rights at the US Department of Justice,” Trump announced on Monday on Truth Social, his social media platform.

Keep ReadingShow less